Angle at this point I believe is a complete nutcase so I wouldn't at all be surprised to see him either kill himself in the ring or in an MMA fight, which he'd probably get slaughtered in given his current mental and physical condition.

i remember seeing brock lesnar almost break his neck when he wrestled angle and thinking that he was one tough son of a b***h to keep wrestling after that. then i found out he was complaining about his wrestling schedule being too much work for him and watched he and goldberg put on the laziest last match ive ever seen when they fought at Wrestlemania 20 and have no respect for him ever since. i dont like the recent news about the undertaker and bobby lashley being injured though, especially since undertaker might have to take off 6 months for surgery and give up the title that hes more than earned with all his hard work over the years.

I hope you're right about Taker. I've been a long time fan of the dead man. I haven't been keeping up in the last couple years but, to my knowledge, Taker hasn't lost a Wrestlemania to date, so I hope if they make him job the title this time, it's to someone really worthy (that's a big "over" for some lucky up-and-comer).

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yep clockworkcanary undertakers Wrestlemania streak is alive and well. he just won the title against batista a few weeks ago to make his record 15-0. this is why its so heartbreaking to see the man get shelved with an injury. he rarely gets a shot at a championship role and here he is getting his bicep torn right off the bone not a month into it. chances are hell have to drop the title back to batista but theres speculation that kennedy could take it or that shawn michaels will be sent to Smackdowns roster to headline.

I like watching the WWE. I started watching as a very young kid, around '87 at 3 or so. Personally my favorite time for what they've done is mid '95 until mid '01. Companies like ECW helped forge it into a more 'adult' oriented product aimed at the 18-35 demographic. And, I believe WWE or WCW wouldn't have been as successful without it. They changed the product from kid oriented to an older audience who wanted to see faster, more athletic matches. Guys like Stone Cold Steve Austin, Mick Foley, Al Snow, Chris Jericho, Eddie Guerrero, Perry Saturn, Sandman, Rey Mysterio Jr, Dean Malenko or Rob Van Dam likely never would've gotten a run in the WWF without some success from ECW.

I still watch WWE today, and it's much more PG oriented, which is fine. To stay alive as a business they have to adapt. In the '80s, marketing to kids made them huge money. In the "Generation X" of the '90s, that was dead and they needed to go the Howard Stern/X Games/Springer route and make it more appealing to adults. Now, they've grown up and have kids, so it's for kids again. Vince McMahon would be out of business if he didn't do it that way.

My wrestling watching fan days ended long ago, but I sometimes see part of Smackdown on Friday night before work since there's so little on then. They've really amped up the production, the bombast, and the visuals over the years, and the women have gotten better looking in a trashy sort of way. Yet the sense of fun just isn't there for me.

As someone who lived thru the waning golden days of wrestling in the mid-late 70's when it was a UHF phenomena, AND a young adult in the early-mid 80's as it began to commercialize into the franchise it is today, I will endlessly agree with you that it's not what it used to be. Back then, it was FUN.

Today, it's all commercial. It's like some sort of soap opera and nothing more than flash, smoke and mirrors. I stopped watching years ago.

Yet there are those die-hard people who will spend every cent of their hard earned money on every wrestling video, or the 60 or 70 doallr price tag for the next Wrestlemania when it comes to Pay-Per-View. I still struggle to understand why...

My wrestling watching fan days ended long ago, but I sometimes see part of Smackdown on Friday night before work since there's so little on then. They've really amped up the production, the bombast, and the visuals over the years, and the women have gotten better looking in a trashy sort of way. Yet the sense of fun just isn't there for me.

As someone who lived thru the waning golden days of wrestling in the mid-late 70's when it was a UHF phenomena, AND a young adult in the early-mid 80's as it began to commercialize into the franchise it is today, I will endlessly agree with you that it's not what it used to be. Back then, it was FUN.

Today, it's all commercial. It's like some sort of soap opera and nothing more than flash, smoke and mirrors. I stopped watching years ago.

Yet there are those die-hard people who will spend every cent of their hard earned money on every wrestling video, or the 60 or 70 doallr price tag for the next Wrestlemania when it comes to Pay-Per-View. I still struggle to understand why...

They still have some good people involved. The problem is the WRITING of the shows. Personally, the only time I buy one of the wrestling dvd's is if it's someone I really, really like: Roddy Piper, Ric Flair, Undertaker, Stone Cold Steve Austin.

For me, the best period of time they had was 1995-2001. After that it's been dwindling. You ever see Kurt Angle? That guy's amazing. A legit Olympic gold medalist who transitioned to pro wrestling.

For me, the ONLY Pay-Per-Views I'll bother watching are, for me, the "Big 3" of the WWE: Royal Rumble, WrestleMania, and SummerSlam.

My personal favourite period was the 1980s...everything seemed to be going gangbusters, Hulkamania was taking off, wrestling was very popular and there seemed to be a different federation on so many different channels...we had the WWF, the NWA, the AWA, World Class, Calgary Stampede, the UWF, Memphis, Florida, Montreal Canadian International and so much more. Wrestlers could move from one company to another so things always seemed fresh...also you didn't know who might show up where, what was going to happen next, etc...much more mystery. The late 90s was a boom period too no doubt as the feds all started to push things to the extreme adding a more adult attitude to the then product. Nowadays things are gone back to the PG days and unfortunate wrestling has gotten way, way too predictable...it's rare a real surprise occurs anymore and it often seems like it's just the same group of wrestlers fighting each other constantly. I don't buy the PPVs anymore but I have to admit to enjoying trading old footage from the past, preferably 80s stuff.

The late '90s had 3 'major' companies, WCW, WWF, and ECW. I preferred ECW and WWF to WCW. But WCW did have a great cruiserweight division for the high flyers.

The offshoots we got here in Philly from ECW's success included CZW, ROH, CHIKARA, and a few others.

EC F'nW!!!

I went to their very first show in PA at the Allentown Field House, and what a riot. They had each and every wrestler on their card, and Francine and Buelah.

Prior to the show, I met Joey Styles and Lance Wright in the Ritz restaurant on the other side of the fairgrounds entrance. It's a little hole-in-the-wall type of place.

My friend and my fiance' (now my wife) were both with me and we all got to talk to them for a while before the show. Nice guys, both of em'.

The promoters were expecting trouble though: The row chairs were tied together at the legs with tie wraps to prevent them getting thrown at the ring. Somehow the chairs wound up getting separated and thrown into the ring anyhow.

Apparently, they underestimated the power of Allentown wrestling fans.

It was this incident, and some incidents in NJ that eventually got ECW and extreme wrestling banned in those states as some damge to the buildings was done, and some people were hurt in shows put on in those states.

The late '90s had 3 'major' companies, WCW, WWF, and ECW. I preferred ECW and WWF to WCW. But WCW did have a great cruiserweight division for the high flyers.

The offshoots we got here in Philly from ECW's success included CZW, ROH, CHIKARA, and a few others.

EC F'nW!!!

I went to their very first show in PA at the Allentown Field House, and what a riot. They had each and every wrestler on their card, and Francine and Buelah.

Prior to the show, I met Joey Styles and Lance Wright in the Ritz restaurant on the other side of the fairgrounds entrance. It's a little hole-in-the-wall type of place.

My friend and my fiance' (now my wife) were both with me and we all got to talk to them for a while before the show. Nice guys, both of em'.

The promoters were expecting trouble though: The row chairs were tied together at the legs with tie wraps to prevent them getting thrown at the ring. Somehow the chairs wound up getting separated and thrown into the ring anyhow.

Apparently, they underestimated the power of Allentown wrestling fans.

It was this incident, and some incidents in NJ that eventually got ECW and extreme wrestling banned in those states as some damge to the buildings was done, and some people were hurt in shows put on in those states.

ECW remains, hands down, my all time favorite promotion. In fact, Blue Meanie lives around here. Saw him at a bar, and damn near openly wept cause I'm a big fan of his.

The late '90s had 3 'major' companies, WCW, WWF, and ECW. I preferred ECW and WWF to WCW. But WCW did have a great cruiserweight division for the high flyers.

The offshoots we got here in Philly from ECW's success included CZW, ROH, CHIKARA, and a few others.

EC F'nW!!!

I went to their very first show in PA at the Allentown Field House, and what a riot. They had each and every wrestler on their card, and Francine and Buelah.

Prior to the show, I met Joey Styles and Lance Wright in the Ritz restaurant on the other side of the fairgrounds entrance. It's a little hole-in-the-wall type of place.

My friend and my fiance' (now my wife) were both with me and we all got to talk to them for a while before the show. Nice guys, both of em'.

The promoters were expecting trouble though: The row chairs were tied together at the legs with tie wraps to prevent them getting thrown at the ring. Somehow the chairs wound up getting separated and thrown into the ring anyhow.

Apparently, they underestimated the power of Allentown wrestling fans.

It was this incident, and some incidents in NJ that eventually got ECW and extreme wrestling banned in those states as some damge to the buildings was done, and some people were hurt in shows put on in those states.

ECW remains, hands down, my all time favorite promotion. In fact, Blue Meanie lives around here. Saw him at a bar, and damn near openly wept cause I'm a big fan of his.

Nice guy though, we talked. Turns out we have mutual friends.

Same here. ECW was always my fave. One of the nastiest things I think I'd ever seen, was when this huge wrestler took Tommy Dreamer up abut 20 feet, and dropped him thru 5 or 6 tables, where he hit the ground with this resounding thud.

Then you had Sabu, the guy who never stayed on the ground-always up on the ropes and doing some acrobatic feat. The scars on his body tell the story. That guy was nuts.

Stevie Richards and the Blue Meanie. How can you forget those two? What a lucky duck you are to have met the Blue Meanie too. ECW is still the best, I agree.